There seems a general rule that, the more obviously one’s work benefits other people, the less one is likely to be paid… — David Graeber Copy Share Image
The working poor are the people suffering out subprime mortgages and fatal loans and more and more of our money - you… — David Graeber Copy Share Image
It is assumed in many parts of the world that democracy is a group of people facing a certain problem, who come… — David Graeber Copy Share Image
Look at labor policy. What's the point of making everybody work too much? It's not very useful. It is destroying the planet,… — David Graeber Copy Share Image
Now, we're used to thinking of communism as being once-upon-a-time-all-things-were-owned-in-common, maybe-someday-this-will-come-again. And people agree that there is a sort of epic narrative… — David Graeber Copy Share Image
The question we should be asking is not why people are sometimes cruel, or even why a few people are usually cruel… — David Graeber Copy Share Image
Traditional hedonism...was based on the direct experience of pleasure: wine, women and song; sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll; or whatever the… — David Graeber Copy Share Image
Consensus isn't just about agreement. It's about changing things around: You get a proposal, you work something out, people foresee problems, you… — David Graeber Copy Share Image
People don't have an ongoing relation unless it's a form of debt because everything is an exchange, so ongoing relationships are incomplete… — David Graeber Copy Share Image
I came to the conclusion that most people in America would really like to be able to get a job where they… — David Graeber Copy Share Image
If you want to minimize the possibility of unexpected breakthroughs, tell people they will receive no resources at all unless they spend… — David Graeber Copy Share Image
What about precarious labor? It's actually not the most efficient form of labor at all. They were much more efficient when they… — David Graeber Copy Share Image
If your father is an air-conditioner repairman from Nebraska, its conceivable that you might become a CEO, but you can't imagine being… — David Graeber Copy Share Image
Student loans are destroying the imagination of youth. If there’s a way of a society committing mass suicide, what better way than… — David Graeber Copy Share Image
People don't have an ongoing relation unless it's a form of debt because everything is an exchange, so ongoing relationships are incomplete exchanges, and… — David Graeber Copy Share
I would like, then, to end by putting in a good word for the non-industrious poor. At least they aren’t hurting anyone. Insofar as… — David Graeber Copy Share
“But if Smith was right, and gold and silver became money through the natural workings of the market completely independently of governments, then wouldn't… — David Graeber Copy Share
“A revolution on a world scale will take a very long time. But it is also possible to recognize that it is already starting… — David Graeber Copy Share
“money has no essence. It's not "really" anything; therefore, its nature has always been and presumably always will be a matter of political contention.” — David Graeber Copy Share
We don't live in a capitalist totality. Capitalism couldn't survive as a totality anyway. We live in this complex system and we already live… — David Graeber Copy Share
The working poor are the people suffering out subprime mortgages and fatal loans and more and more of our money - you know, capitalism… — David Graeber Copy Share
“Solitary pleasures will always exist, but for most human beings, the most pleasurable activities almost always involve sharing something: music, food, liquor, drugs, gossip,… — David Graeber Copy Share
“The criminalization of debt, then, was the criminalization of the very basis of human society. It cannot be overemphasized that in a small community,… — David Graeber Copy Share
If you imagine that everything is an exchange, then we're supposed to just transact and walk away. If we haven't walked away and we… — David Graeber Copy Share
“As Pierre Bourdieu was later to point out in describing a similar economy of trust in contemporary Algeria: it’s quite possible to turn honor… — David Graeber Copy Share
[A] great embarrassing fact… haunts all attempts to represent the market as the highest form of human freedom: that historically, impersonal, commercial markets originate… — David Graeber Copy Share
“As the events of 2011 reveal, the age of revolutions is by no means over. The human imagination stubbornly refuses to die. And the… — David Graeber Copy Share
